Venus Williams is coming back to New York after she received a wild-card invite Wednesday into the U.S. Open women’s singles main draw.
She and former world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki sit atop the list of eight players awarded wild cards from the U.S. Tennis Association for the Open, which will begin later this month.
Williams is a seven-time Grand Slam singles champ, including Flushing Meadows wins in 2000 and 2001.
It will mark Williams’ 24th U.S. Open since she made her debut with a finals run in 1997, before some of her younger foes were even born.
The 43-year-old just returned to competition earlier this summer during the grass-court season after she had been sidelined for six months due to injury.
And her return has been an encouraging one.
Monday, Williams earned her first top-20 victory in four years, beating Veronika Kudermetova 6-4, 7-5 at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati.
Williams, who lost in the first round of the 2022 Open after getting a wild card, is currently ranked No. 533 in the world.
Wozniacki, the 2018 Australian Open champ, had previously been revealed as a wild-card recipient when she announced her return to tennis in an essay in Vogue earlier this summer.
The U.S. Open, at which she was a finalist in 2009 and 2014, will be her first Grand Slam appearance since she retired following the 2020 Australian Open to start a family.
Now after having two children — 2-year-old Olivia and 6-month-old James — Wozniacki is returning to the court.
Her first match back was a first-round win last week in Montreal at the Canadian Open before she lost in the second-round.
She also dropped her opener in Cincinnati.
Other women getting wild cards include Americans Kayla Day, Ashlyn Krueger, Robin Montgomery and Clervie Ngounoue.
Former top-10 player John Isner, now 38, leads the men’s wild cards.
The main draw starts Aug. 28. Current world No. 1s Carlos Alcaraz and Iga Swiatek are the defending champs.
